Rich in greens and proteins, this beef stir-fry is on your table in a flash. Sichuan pepper works beautifully with tender beef and Chinese leafy greens.
Cooking Time :15 minutes
Ingredients (serves 4)

1 tbs extra light olive oil
500g beef stir-fry strips
1 bunch broccolini, cut into 5cm lengths
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp Woolworths Select Sichuan Pepper
1 bunch gai lan (Chinese broccoli), washed, cut into 5cm lengths
60ml (1/4 cup) char siu sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
Steamed rice, to serve
Thai basil leaves, to serve

Method

Heat half the oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat until just smoking. Add half the beef and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining oil and beef, reheating the wok between batches.
Add the broccolini, garlic and Sichuan pepper to wok and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until the broccolini is just tender.
Add the beef, gai lan, char siu sauce and soy sauce to the wok and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly.
Spoon the rice among serving dishes and top with the beef mixture. Sprinkle with Thai basil to serve.

Notes

Make it vegetarian: Omit the beef stir-fry strips. In step 1, add 320g firm tofu, drained, cut into thin strips, to the wok and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Add 1 red capsicum, deseeded, thinly sliced, with the gai lan in step 3.

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Ingredients (serves 4)

1 250g pkt dried wheat noodles
2 tbs peanut oil
2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly whisked
200g pork fillet, very thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled, diced
1 red capsicum, deseeded, diced
8 green shallots, trimmed, thinly sliced diagonally
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled, finely grated
400g small cooked prawns, peeled, chopped
2 tbs kecap manis
1 tbs sambal oelek
75g bean sprouts
Pinch of salt

Method

Place noodles in a heatproof bowl. Cover with plenty of boiling water and set aside, stirring occasionally to separate, for 5 minutes or until soft.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tsp of oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add eggs, tilting wok until they cover base and sides. As omelette begins to set, lift edges so uncooked egg runs underneath. Cook for 1 minute or until set. Slide onto a chopping board and roll into a log. Use a sharp knife to cut crossways into thin slices. Place on a plate and set aside until required.
Add another 2 tsp of the oil to the wok and increase heat to high. Add the pork and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a bowl and set aside until required.
Heat the remaining oil in the wok. Add the carrot, capsicum, half of the shallots, garlic and ginger, and stir-fry for 1 minute.
Drain the noodles and add to the wok with the pork, prawns, kecap manis and sambal oelek, and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until the noodles are heated through.
Remove from heat. Add the bean sprouts and toss gently until well combined. Taste and season with salt.
Divide among serving plates and top with the sliced egg and remaining green shallots. Serve immediately.

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Ingredients (serves 6)

1kg beef bones
3L (12 cups) cold water
2 brown onions, chopped
5cm piece ginger, peeled, sliced
5 whole star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp black peppercorns
5 whole cloves
1 tbs coriander seeds
2 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs lime juice
100g thick rice noodles
1 (about 200g) beef fillet steak, thinly sliced
2 cups (110g) bean sprouts
3 green onions, trimmed, thinly sliced diagonally
2 red birdseye chillies, thinly sliced
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup coriander leaves
Lime wedges, to serve

Method

Place the beef bones, water, onion, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves and coriander seeds in a large saucepan over high heat. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to very low and cook, skimming surface occasionally of any fat with a metal spoon, for 3 hours or until liquid reduces by half. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan. Remove and reserve any meat from the bones and discard remaining solids.
Place the soup over high heat and bring to a simmer. Add the fish sauce and lime juice and stir to combine. Taste and season with salt, pepper, fish sauce and lime juice.
Meanwhile, place the noodles in a large heatproof bowl and pour over plenty of boiling water. Set aside for 5 minutes to soak. Drain well. Divide noodles and reserved beef evenly among serving bowls. Top with sliced beef. Pour the hot soup evenly among each serving bowl. Top with bean sprouts, green onion, chilli, mint and coriander. Serve immediately with lime wedges, if desired.

Notes

Pronounced as 'fuh', pho is renowned as Vietnam's most popular dish and is aften enjoyed for breakfast and lunch. Many cooks have their own secret to creating perfect pho. One tip is to char the ginger and onion before adding to the stock for a richer, more complex flavour; another is to use bones with marrow, and to parboil and rinse the bones for a clearer broth.

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Ingredients (serves 4)

1/3 cup (55g) finely chopped palm sugar
1 tbs fish sauce
1 cup (145g) raw cashews
1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 tbs sesame seeds
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
1 bunch Chinese water spinach, ends trimmed
1 bunch coriander, leaves picked
1 bunch Vietnamese mint, leaves picked
2 purple Asian shallots, thinly sliced
1 (about 500g) Chinese barbecue pork, thinly sliced
Steamed jasmine rice, to serve

Method

Combine 1/4 cup (45g) of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of fish sauce in a wok over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes or until sugar dissolves and begins to caramelise. Add the cashews, five-spice and sesame seeds and cook, tossing, for 1-2 minutes or until cashews are coated in caramel mixture. Remove from heat and spread over a piece of baking paper to cool.
Combine the rice wine vinegar with the remaining sugar and fish sauce in a small jug. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Combine the water spinach, coriander, mint, shallots and pork in a large bowl and gently toss to combine. Drizzle with the dressing and gently toss to combine. Sprinkle with cashews to serve.

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Ingredients (serves 4)

4 cups salt-reduced chicken stock
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 small red chillies, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled,
cut into short, thin sticks
100g fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
150g snow peas, shredded lengthways
1 barbecued chicken, skin and bones removed, meat shredded
1/2 Chinese cabbage, finely shredded (see note)
1 bunch coriander, leaves picked

Method

Combine stock, 2 cups water, soy sauce and chillies in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer.
Add carrots, mushrooms, snow peas and chicken to pan. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 2 minutes. Add cabbage and cook for 1 minute or until cabbage wilts.
Stir half the coriander into soup. Divide soup between bowls. Top with remaining coriander and serve.

Notes

Note: Half a Chinese cabbage will give you 3 cups shredded cabbage.

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From the name siomay, you can tell this food had an influence from the Chinese who immigrated to Indonesia long time ago.  A word of siomay itself is derived from shaomai (also spelled shui mai, shu mai, sui mai, sui maai, shui mei, siu mai, shao mai, siew mai or siomai), the traditional Chinese dumpling.  Siomay (or Somay) has an ice cream cone shape, except the bottom is flat.

This kind of dim sum is a popular meal in Indonesia as a street/hawker food.  The difference between Chinese traditional dimsum with the Indonesian is the sauce.  We enjoy siomay with peanut sauce that has a kick from chili and drizzle with citrus juice (usually from jeruk limo (aka nasnaran mandarin or leprous lime) or jeruk purut (aka kaffir lime).

Most Indonesians use king mackerel fish (ikan tenggiri) meat for the filling.  But, you can find other filling variants such as shrimp or chicken or different type of fish.  For my recipe, I used featherback fish (ikan belida) paste.  Ikan belida was traditionally used by Palembangese (South Sumatrans) for making kerupuk (crackers), pempek (fish cake with tamarind sauce) and otak-otak (grilled fish cake wrapped in banana leaves).   I'm attaching the picture of ikan belida paste below.

Other complements to siomay bandung are hard boiling eggs, afilled cabbage, potatoes, bitter melon, and tofu.

As some of you know that I'm not a big fan of hard boiled eggs, I never add them to my plate.  In this case, I totally forgot to buy fresh tofu and potato, so I used tofu puffs and skipped the potato.

Note: I slightly change the NCC's recipe to my liking.  I used almost all roasted ingredients.   Find the tips for making easier sambal kacang below the recipe.

Siomay Bandung
-Bandung Style Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sambal-
recipe by NCC (Natural Cooking Club), modified and translated by me
Ingredients:
500 g featherback fish (ikan belida) paste -> can be substituted for other white fish or shrimp or chicken
2 tsbp shallots, grated
1 tbsp mashed roasted garlic -> NCC: grated garlic
2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp dried shrimp (ebi), ground -> NCC: chicken bouillon
1 tsp fish sauce -> my idea
2 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsbp sesame oil
3 eggs
400 g chayotte or jicama, shredded
450 g tapioca starch

round wonton skins
bittermelon
cabbage
tofu puffs







Featherback Fish (Ikan Belida) Paste

Sambal Kacang (Peanut Sambal)
400 g garlicky roasted peanuts
100 g garlicky roasted cashew nuts
150 g red cayenne pepper (reduce the amount to your liking), roasted
3 cloves roasted garlic, mash with a spoon
2 tbsp canesugar vinegar
2 tbsp salt
7 tbsp coconut sugar (gula jawa, gula merah)
500 g baked sweet potato (about 2 regular size sweet potatoes), peeled
1.5 L water

Methods:
1. In a big bowl, combine fish paste with shallot, garlic, white pepper, dried shrimp, fish sauce, sugar, salt and sesame seed oil.  Then add egg and mix well.

2 Add chayotte or jicama, mix well. Add tapioca starch and mix well again. Set aside.

3. Steam all of these below for about 20-30 minutes. Grease the steamer with very small amount of oil if you need, so the dumplings won't be sticky.

--> Siomay:
Take one piece of the wonton skin, scoop 1 tbsp of filling on the centre of the skin. Shape the siomay using hands and leave the top open. Repeat the step until all wonton skin are used up. Steam for 20-30 minutes.

--> Tofu and Potato Soybean Cake & Potato:
Cut in half and scrape a portion of tofu & potato side and fill it in with the filling. Do the same step if you use tofu puffs.

--> Bitter Melon
Cut in 3 to 4 pieces. I cut up to 5 pieces since the bittermelon size is quite bigger here. Scrape the seed portion and fill it in with the base filling.

--> Cabbage:
Many recipes suggested to dip the leaves in to hot water for a few seconds since they don't fill the cabbage leaves with fish paste mixture. I prefer using the Ukrainian way of making holubtsi (cabagge roll). Steam the whole head of cabbage until soften. Cut the leaves off of the cabbage and cut the larger leaves in half. Spoon 1 tablespoon of filling into a leaf and roll tightly. Place rolls in a prepared casserole dish. Ready for steaming.

--> Egg
Hard boiled eggs split in half, paste on a mixture of fish.

Sambal Kacang (Peanut Sambal)
1. Process peanuts and cashew nuts in a food processor until smooth (I like a bit crunchy, everyone who loves smoother texture can process a bit longer). Transfer into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Process red cayenne pepper and garlic until smooth. Add sweet potato and process again. Add ground nuts; process. Add salt, vinegar, sugar and combine again. Do a taste test, if it's perfect for your tastebuds then it's ready to serve.

Seving suggestions: place all dumpling on a plate, cut to bite sizes if you like. Add peanut sambal and drizzle over the juice of leprous lime or kaffir lime, kecap manis and ketchup. I usually serve another side of chili sambal if people want to have more heat.

Tips:
* Use ready to use natural peanut and cashew butter from a store.  I like using the natural ones since there is no other additions beside the nuts and salt.  Some natural health stores in Winnipeg offer a service for us to grind the unsalted roasted peanuts that we buy there.

*In this recipe, I made my own garlicky roasted peanuts and cashew nuts.  Soak the nuts in warm water with lots of mashed garlics, add a bit of salt if you like.  Leave them overnight.  The next morning, drain them and roast in a pan with extra virgin coconut oil (add just enough, don't put too much).  Before the nuts turn golden brown (about a half of roasting time), add garlic slices.

* You can always roast the cayenne pepper with the whole head of garlics.  If you have a left over roasted garlic, you can apply for your toast or spice up others foods.

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Growing up in the country where sambal is in every corner of food stalls or restaurants, I enjoy making my own sambal since moving to Canada.  Every household has a different style of sambal terasi and my family used to enhance with bilimbi as we grew a bilimbi tree on the backyard.  Sambal terasi belimbing sayur/wuluh (sambal terasi with bilimbi) was one of my fave sambals.

In my parents' house, sambal was served daily on the dining table, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  At that time, sambal terasi was usually making fresh before lunch by my family's helper.  Yes! Sambal terasi rule! It has to be there for daily condiment.  We enjoy it with fresh raw or blanched vegetables (lalapan) and grilled or fried fish/chicken/duck/tofu/tempe.  I also love adding it into my soup.

Note: If there are many Filipino immigrants in your city, a chance to get bilimbi at Asian market is greater. They call this small fruit as "kamias".

Sambal Terasi with Bilimbi
- Sambal Terasi Belimbing Sayur/Wuluh

Ingredients:

• 150 g long red cayenne peppers (Indonesian: cabai merah keriting)
• 5 -10 bird eyes chilies (more or less depend how spicy you want)
• 6 bilimbis, sliced � since I used the frozen ones, I put more bilimbis
• 2 1/2  tbsp terasi (dried shrimp paste)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
• seasalt as desired
• sugar if you like, but I don�t add any

Methods:I usually roast/toast everything except bilimbi, salt and sugar.  The reason why I do that, I make a big batch; so I tripled or more the recipe, keep it in a jar and store the jar in the fridge.

Slice the chilies before roasting.  In a baking pan, place sliced chilies and terasi.  Drizzle coconut oil over and roast in oven at 350F about 5 minutes or so.

After the roasting process, pound or crush or grind the chilies and terasi.  The best way to make sambal is using a pestle and mortar.  Add bilimbi, salt and sugar. Pound again until mix. Some people like to add a small amount of coconut/palm sugar or sugar.

Ready to serve. Selamat Makan (Bon app�tit)!

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